Washington Gardener Magazine is the publication for MD, DC & VA area gardeners.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

VA Garden Week - Great Falls Tour

I've been kind of quiet lately as I'm in the deadline battle for our May/June 2008 "Growing Great Tomatoes" issue of Washington Gardener Magazine. So how do I budget my scarce time, by taking a six-hour jaunt yesterday across the Potomac to view four estates at the Great Falls Tour part of Historic Garden Week in Virginia.

Was it worth it? Well, the company was great -- a few friends from the Takoma Hort Club -- and the weather cleared making it a picture-perfect day, but 2 out of 4 of the properties were more just "showcase landscape" than garden of any enjoyable stroll kind. Of the two others, one was an extremely formal European style affair -- all boxwoods, roses, small trees, and swaths of manicured lawn. It is was nice, but not my cup of tea. The final garden though made it all worth it. *sigh* I've posted a few pics here, but they can't really do it justice. An acre or so of meandering woodland paths and at every step a new treasure to view from the healthiest and happiest Daphne odora I've ever seen to big patches of Heuchera that I so envy. She included many touches of whimsy and clearly has a terrific sense of humor. This gardener had everything labeled well and accurately -- exactly how a tour should be!